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What Are the Dodger Owners Doing?
The Dodgers beat the Padres 8-4. And as much as they want to drag this corpse of a season as long as possible, they still have only six games to make up three games in the standings against the St. Louis Cardinals.
So instead let's talk about money. Bloomberg unearthed details of a secret agreement between then-owner Frank McCourt and Major League Baseball that could limit the amount of television revenue that is subject to revenue-sharing at $84 million.
MLB Vice President Robert Manfred disputed this secret agreement. As John Helyar, Steven Church and Scott Soshnick reported:
It doesn’t work that way, said Robert Manfred Jr., an MLB executive vice president who oversees revenue-sharing matters. If the Dodgers command a premium for TV rights, the team must share revenue based on its fees income from the actual contract, according to Manfred, not the settlement-set $84 million a year level. “The basic treatment is exactly the same as every other team in baseball,” Manfred said. “Any dollar that’s actually received in rights fees or signing bonus by the Dodgers is subject to revenue-sharing.”
He said the auction produced high offers not because of the special terms but because a flagship baseball team was available in America’s second biggest media market and under favorable circumstances.
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The Angels got $2.5 billion for 17 years by Fox Sports which comes out to an average of $147 million per year. The Lakers got $200 million per year for 15 years my Time Warner Cable. So you do the math.
I'm sure this will not endear the Dodgers to anyone else, especially with them dropping hundreds of millions in a day.
And speaking of money, money, money, Guggenheim Partners is reportedly joining forces with Patrick Soon-Shiong to make a bid for Anschutz Entertainment Group.
AEG, who owns the Kings, STAPLES Center and many more teams and arenas throughout the world, is also trying to get Farmers Field built in Downtown L.A to bring the NFL back to the city. The Dodgers have been mum about their plans to join the NFL to L.A. fray, but it was interesting to note the Dodgers hiring former city hall denizens Renata Simril and Rafael Gonzalez to the front office earlier in the month.
So are the Dodgers a mere pawn to get the real cash cow of the NFL into the portfolios of Magic Johnson and Mark Walter? It makes me wonder if Guggenheim Baseball Management is Fox II, a company with ulterior motives for buying the Dodgers and leave it an overbloated mess.
How does Guggenheim's earlier acquisition of Dick Clark Productions play into things?
All of these questions causes the mind to spin. It will be interesting how all of this plays out.
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